CAMP PENDLETON – The actions of a Marine captain accused of failing to investigate the deaths of 24 civilians in the Iraqi town of Haditha never “rose to the level of criminal dereliction,” a Marine colonel testified Monday.

Col. John Ewers said he believed Capt. Randy W. Stone “bore some of the responsibility” for what prosecutors called “thin reporting” in the Nov. 19, 2005 slayings, which included women and children, but said others in the battalion were also to blame.

“There was plenty of responsibility to go around,” Ewers said during a preliminary hearing for Stone, a battalion lawyer charged with dereliction of duty and an orders violation for failing to investigate the killings.

“He didn't appear to have been instrumental in any of the decisions responding to the 19th of November incident,” Ewers said.

Also Monday, a Marine major testified that Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani shouted “my men are not murderers” after learning of allegations that his troops targeted civilians.

Chessani “apologized for his outburst” and said the slayings would be reviewed, testified Maj. Samuel Carrasco, operations officer for the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines.

“He had an incredible amount of agitation, frustration,” Carrasco said of Chessani.

Ewers interviewed Stone in March 2006 as part of a probe by Army Maj. Gen. Eldon A. Bargewell to determine whether anyone deliberately tried to cover up the killings.

Bargewell found that officers did not deliberately conceal the incident, but he faulted the Marine chain of command for viewing civilian casualties, even in significant numbers, as routine.

During Stone's interview, conducted in Iraq, Ewers did not read him his rights. Defense attorney Charles Gittins said he called Ewers to the stand because, based on that omission, he wanted Stone's interview transcript to be removed from the evidence.

Ewers' testimony provided some of the first significant discussion of Stone. In earlier testimony, prosecutors have examined the actions of the other officers charged in the case – Chessani, Capt. Lucas McConnell and 1st Lt. Andrew Grayson.

“It's a discovery proceeding for the other cases,” Stone's attorney, Charles Gittins, told reporters during a recess.

Gittins has called several witnesses, including a two-star general, to testify that, like Stone, they saw no need to investigate the deaths because they were deemed to have been a lawful consequence of combat.

Stone, 34, was new to the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines, at the time of the killings and prosecutors have suggested that he “went native” in an attempt to curry favor with Marines, rather than maintaining objective detachment and adequately reporting the deaths.

Ewers said Stone was “set up to fail” because Chessani, the battalion commander, did not “fully utilize” him. Marines have only introduced lawyers at the battalion level since the start of the war in Iraq.

Four officers, including Chessani and Stone, are charged with dereliction of duty. Three enlisted Marines are charged with murder. Among other allegations, Iraqi witnesses accused Marines of herding four men into a cupboard and spraying them with gunfire.

Chessani told his bosses at the time that the allegation was “absolutely false,” court documents say.

The slayings occurred after a roadside bomb killed one Marine driving a Humvee. The blast killed one Marine and injured two others.

In the aftermath, five Iraqi men were shot as they approached the scene in a taxi and others – including women and children – died as Marines went house to house in the area, clearing homes with grenades and gunfire.

The Marine Corps asserts that the 24 people slain were civilians, but several witnesses have testified eight were insurgents, a claim that has not been verified.